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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

SPOILERS: Batman #0

Gotham's new National Bank is opening, and to celebrate, they've got cake and special guests... the Red Hood gang (lead by one with a dome helmet, and a flower on his lapel). The leader tells everyone to get on the ground, yadda yadda, normal bank heist stuff. As the manager of the bank speaks out, the Red Hood tells Red Hood 5 to shut the guy up. Red Hood 5 does this by hitting the man with the butt of his gun, which ends up causing it to break. Red Hood 5 requests a new gun, and the Red Hood throws him his, them promptly tells him to put it to his head.

Red Hood Five doesn't know what to do, as the Red Hood puts his uzi to the man's skull, and repeats his orders. The Red Hood mentions that Red Hood 5 enjoys killing, and would have shot the man to shut him up. Red Hood Five is also left handed, and the man acting as Red Hood Five caught the gun with his right hand. Again, The Red Hood tells 5 to shoot himself, or they'll do much worse.

Obviously caught, Red Hood 5 agrees to do what the Red Hood says, as long as no one in the building gets hurt. The Red Hood laughs at the proposition, pointing out that all the people in the bank are already dead, poisoned by the cake... interesting. So, as 5 puts the gun to his mouth, he hesitates for a second, before whipping the gun around, and kicking everyone's ass.

The police arrive just as 5... okay, well... if you haven't gotten it by now, 5 is Bruce. So... Bruce makes his way outside, only to be caught by the cops, but the rest of the Red Hood gang follows, and in the chaos, Bruce escapes into the sewers where a bike waits for him. The gang follows him, and Bruce speeds off deeper into the system, until he makes his way to a secret entrance to a brownstone, centered in the middle of Crime Alley.

Alfred is waiting for Bruce in the high tech hideout. Bruce's current state is a lot like the one we're used to before he took up the cowl. He's good, just not good enough. He feels as if he's missing something, but he doesn't know what that is just yet. Bruce excuses himself from the conversation, as he goes to the roof to test out a new boomerang like device that has a timed come back feature.

While doing his test, Bruce sets the timer on the boomerang for four minutes. After he throws it, Alfred interrupts him, revealing that he has a guest, Lt. James Gordon. Gordon wants to speak to him about a few things, first a few dealings Wayne Enterprises have conducted under Philip Kane. Gordon doesn't make any flat out accusations of anything, but he plays the situation very coyly. After the business talk, Bruce asks him if there was anything else, and Gordon asks if he's heard anything about the vigilante that has shown up in Crime Alley going to war with the Red Hood gang. Bruce claims not to know anything, and asks why Gordon is asking. Gordon brushes it off, just pointing out that the guy has some serious tech, and just warns Bruce not to get "sympathetic" with him, as anyone involved with him will be made example of when caught... again, plays it very coy. The two's conversation ends, and they leave the roof, just as the boomerang comes back.

Outside the brownstone, the Red Hood and his gang spot out Wayne's "nest" and comment to themselves that it's time to "blow it sky high." TO BE CONTINUED IN 2013! Wait, what?

END.

Years later, around the same time as the first arc of Justice League, Gordon is on the roof of the GCPD with Babs, about to turn on the Bat signal for the first time. Babs asks if it's the best idea, saying that it could be interpreted as admitting defeat, that the system doesn't work. Gordon doesn't agree, he tells his daughter that it's not about admitting defeat, it's about giving those who need something to fear, have something to fear, all the while, giving those who need hope, something to hope for.

Throughout the city, we see a tech savy kid by the name of Timothy in the office of his school's Principal, just as he emails the police about his Principal's fraud and theft of money. Elsewhere, a convenience store robbery goes wrong, and a kid by the name of Jason beats the shit out of his partner, and turns him into the police. The circus also happens to be in town, and a young acrobat by the name of Richard is promoting himself to the crowds, who all begin to look up into the sky. Those three kids all look up into the sky and see the same thing, the Batsignal, and all react to it in their own way.

On the roof, Gordon finishes telling Babs about what he believes the purpose of the signal is, and how he hopes it will reach the right people. Babs tells her father that they'll see it, and that she believes in him. Before Gordon goes downstairs, he tells his daughter to "believe in him too." As her father heads down the stairs, Babs tells him that she'll be down in a minute, and looks up to the sky, with the same sense of wonder as everyone else.

END.

SOOOOOO, I'll straight up say... the back up was my favorite part of the issue. Just so freaking perfect. I know the concept is entirely different, but if this is what James Tynion brings to Talon, we're in for a treat.

On the main feature, it's so god damn good to have Greg Capullo back. I want him drawing Batman for a damn long time. I want more issues of this book drawn by him than he did of Spawn! Perfect Batman artist, and it was great to see him take a crack at pre-Batman Bruce.

There are a lot of things of interest in in this issue, mainly, Joker I mean, the Red Hood (let's be real). The "to be continued in 2013" is pretty interesting, mainly because Death of the Family ends in February I think... so that "To Be Continued" is certainly a head scratcher. Then, there was another mention of the Kane family. Two weeks in a row? Can't be a coincidence.

The one thing that I didn't like about the issue is the fact that it abruptly ends. It was one of those "wait, what?" endings, because it felt like there were a few missing pages to me.

Abrupt ending aside, I'd say the back up made up for it, and more, so there's not a whole lot to complain about.

I too really enjoyed the backup! I know a lot of people are getting caught up in this 5-year thing, but I must say as someone who never bought an ongoing series until the New-52 (now have a monthly pull list of 15ish - all DC) it doesn't bother me at all! I've read a ton of older stories and just don't get hung up. A good story is a good story and damn! can Snyder tell a good story!